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A woman sitting at a computer, typing on the keyboard while looking at the monitor.
Women
  1. Introduction of Female Suffrage
  2. Tokuju (Special Order) Boom and Female Workers
  3. Increase of Female Employees
  4. Popularity of American Style Fashion and Western Dressmaking
  5. Part-time Female Workers
  6. Women and Agriculture
  7. Ama (Female Diver)
  8. Marriage Retirement and Retirement Ages for Men and Women
  9. Office Ladies (OL)
  10. Dual Tracks in Female Occupations: Ippan Shoku (Non-Career Track) and Sōgō Shoku (Career Track)
  11. Laws Regarding Working Women
  12. Sexual Harassment
  13. Low Birth Rate and Working Women
  14. Separate Surnames for Married Couples
  15. Female dominant occupations
  16. “Mighty” Women: Police and the Military Self Defense Force
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Group of men and women taking notes of job postings
Female and male students taking notes from notices of position openings on a bulletin board, 1988.
Photo from Mainichi Shimbun.
Increase of Female Employees
Japan entered its high economic growth period in the late 1950s. The wartime lifestyle that emphasized thrift as a virtue shifted to a consumer lifestyle, and the center of the economy shifted from agriculture to the industrial and service sectors. Along with these changes, it became common for women to work after completing their education. In 1967, the number of female employees exceeded ten million for the first time. The number of female employees has gradually increased since then, and in 2000, 40% of all employees, or 21.4 million, were female.Click CHART to see the shift in the number of female employees in postwar Japan.
Special Terms: service sector

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